David Johnston believes he is the man to get to grips with foreign interference in Canada. The will of Parliament and the wishes of the public be damned.
In a calm and measured three-hour appearance before MPs Tuesday, the prime minister’s special rapporteur proved not only that he can be awfully stubborn, but also, perhaps, a little naïve and self-important.
Canadians are twice as likely to support a formal inquiry into foreign interference, as opposed to public hearings, according to new polling from Nanos Research for CTV News.
Nearly six in 10 Canadians say they prefer the idea of a formal public inquiry headed by a judge with full subpoena powers, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, a quarter of respondents say they would prefer the public hearings option “to shine more light on the problem of foreign interference and the threat it poses.”
What happens when an unstoppable progressive force meets an immovable progressive wall? Apologies, for starters. Once again, Canada, America’s nutty neo-fascist neighbor to the north, has broken new ground in Leftist weirdness. As you know all too well at this point, it is Pride month here, there, and everywhere. And Canada is no exception. The current ruling class of Canucks has never met a progressive mantra it didn’t enthusiastically embrace. But unlike a certain brand of peanut butter cups whose name I cannot mention, sometimes two great tastes don’t go great together.
It’s quite the bombshell. It’s a 77-page investigative report on Beijing’s influence operations in Canada’s democratic institutions. It examines the Chinese Communist Party’s sinister engagements with this country’s political processes, universities, civil society, corporate sector, Chinese-language news media and social media.
Rich in documentary evidence and fact-based analysis, the report also relies on expert advice and named informants, except in cases where the security of individuals and entities would be put at risk. It’s titled Murky Waters: Beijing’s Influence in Canadian Democratic and Electoral Processes.
Oh my! Have a look at who is on the board of David Johnston’s so called “non partisan” charity The Rideau Hall Foundation. It’s only the literal who’s who of CCP creme of the captured crop bootlicker$. It’s so in our bloody faces, ABSOLUTELY CIRCLE JERK AAAAMAZINE I tell ya.… pic.twitter.com/Jfd3NQq5t9
— Laura Love (@Panopticonomy) June 7, 2023
Canadian auto insurers lost more than $1-billion last year from stolen vehicles as organized crime rings helped push up car thefts by nearly 50 per cent in Ontario and Quebec.
In a report released Tuesday, Équité Association estimates the insurance industry nationally lost more than $1-billion in vehicle-theft claims in 2022, up from $700-million in 2021. And Équité, a not-for-profit organization that assists in insurance fraud and crime investigations, expects the losses to continue to climb.
There wasn’t much chance going in that David Johnston was going to win over MPs reviewing his report on foreign interference. And when he left, he hadn’t provided much reassurance for Canadians that he got to the bottom of things.
The government’s special rapporteur on foreign interference had to expect that his appearance at a Commons committee would bring more questions about his impartiality, and those of his staff. And it did.
Trudeau asked a fellow member of Canada’s China Class to whitewash their entanglement with the Communist Regime.
Early on Aug. 21, 2013, Syrian government forces fired rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin into the rebel-held Ghouta district of Damascus.
As the chemical clouds spread, residents began to froth at the mouth. Fluid oozed from their eyes and noses as they convulsed and suffocated.
The Ghouta gas attack killed up to 1,400 people, many of them children, and was the latest display of the horrors of chemical warfare.
Another win for Canada’s battle against Islamophobia.
I wonder how badly compromised our government is by Islamists. Nearly as bad as China I imagine.
A secret Privy Council office memo recommended that any COVID vaccine-related injuries or deaths be carefully managed with “winning communication strategies” as to not “shake public confidence,” according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
h/t XC
Former governor general David Johnston has revealed he’s been using not one, but two reputation-management firms to do his work looking into foreign interference in Canada’s democracy. He might need a couple more.
For more than three hours on Tuesday, Johnston was plunged into the politics he’s tried to stay above during his long career in public service and academia.
His mission was to defend the work he’s done to date for Justin Trudeau’s government, looking into the white-hot issue of whether this country is vulnerable to foreign interference in its elections, notably from China.
Drag queen story readings to children have been in the news throughout 2023.
Most of the media coverage on drag performers reading to children has been centred around public libraries.
But what hasn’t received much coverage is such events happen in elementary schools, too.
All schools must comply’ – schools get heavy-handed against Pride backlash
As in-school Pride celebrations face growing signs of backlash across Canada, administrators are responding with stern reminders to school boards that these observations are not optional.
“It is incumbent on all school boards to ensure all students – most especially 2SLGBTQ+ students – feel supported, reflected in their schools, and welcomed within our communities,” Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce wrote in a June 2 statement to kick off Pride Month.
Meanwhile in California of all states …
A physical brawl breaks out between anti-LGBTQ protestors and LGBTQ supporters outside the Glendale unified school board meeting in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/jcqML9NmAi
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) June 7, 2023
The #WokeArmy is dealt a lethal blow. The battlefront: Montgomery County, Maryland. TODAY. The hard-left came after the kids and Muslim parents aren’t having it. 🧵
Montgomery County Public Schools recently refused to allow parents to opt out of indoctrination that relates to… pic.twitter.com/KIMTI1fAIM
— Asra Nomani • Defeating the #WokeArmy (@AsraNomani) June 7, 2023
The elephant in the room is that the rebellion is mostly by Muslim kids and their parents with incidents in London as below, Edmonton and Quebec.
h/t Mauser
OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada raised its overnight rate by 25 basis points to 4.75 per cent on Wednesday, its first increase since pausing hikes in January. The central bank’s key interest rate has not been this high since April 2001.
Several factors led to the bank’s decision to raise the key interest rate, including economic growth in Canada. Gross Domestic Product exceeded expectations in the first quarter of this year, growing by 3.1 per cent.
The central bank says demand in the economy has rebounded, with surprisingly strong consumer spending. Housing market activity has picked up again and the Canadian labour market remains tight.
Mortgage defaults can’t be far behind.
Across Canada, the average price of rent climbed back up after pandemic lows, with the monthly rate new tenants face now 20 per cent higher than it was two years ago, according to just-released rental data.
The average rental property cost around $1,662 in April 2021, according to data compiled from new listings on Rentals.ca, but the average price to rent is now around $2,002 as of April 2023.
This is 9.6 per cent higher than the same time period last year as well.
David Johnston says China interference findings may have been based on incomplete intelligence
Former governor-general David Johnston conceded Tuesday that his findings that China did not orchestrate a campaign against the Conservative Party may have been based on incomplete intelligence, casting doubt on the special rapporteur’s report that a public inquiry into Beijing interference in Canadian democracy is not warranted.
In testimony before the Commons committee on procedure and House affairs, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pressed Mr. Johnston to explain a contradiction between his report and what former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole told Parliament last week.
After all, how much intelligence is needed for a whitewash?
It was a lamentable spectacle, watching the once-admired David Johnston, glassy-eyed and defiant, struggling to see the obvious conflicts
A recent episode of the excellent podcast The Rest is History explored the world of freemasonry, debating whether the masons are “a secret cabal of devil worshippers that run the world” or a “fraternity of like-minded individuals who enjoy eccentric rituals.”
Johnston did not interview Han Dong for foreign interference report
… David Johnston, a former governor general appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to review allegations of foreign meddling, told a House of Commons’ committee Tuesday that he did not interview Don Valley North MP Han Dong during his two-month probe.
That’s despite finding that “there clearly were strange practices, unusual practices going on” during Dong’s 2019 nomination contest in the safe Liberal riding. Johnston said his team did not conclude that those “strange practices” could be attributed to the People’s Republic of China, though his report noted suspicions that they could be.
